Shloka 51
आयोधनदर्शनम्
Viewing the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra
“कटकर गिरे हुए मस्तकों, हाथों और सम्पूर्ण अंगोंके ढेर लगे हैं। वे सभी एकके ऊपर एक करके पड़े हैं। उनसे यहाँकी सारी पृथ्वी ढँकी हुई जान पड़ती है ।। विशिरस्कानथो कायान् दृष्टवा होताननिन्दितान् | मुहान्त्यनुगता नार्यो विदेहानि शिरांसि च,“इन बिना मस्तकके सुन्दर धड़ों और बिना धड़के मस्तकोंको देख-देखकर ये अनुगामिनी स्त्रियाँ मूर्छित-सी हो रही हैं
vaiśampāyana uvāca |
viśiraskān atho kāyān dṛṣṭvā hatān aninditān |
muhyanty anugatā nāryo videhāni śirāṃsi ca ||
Vaiśampāyana said: Seeing the headless bodies—those blameless warriors now slain—and also the severed heads lying apart from their bodies, the women who had followed after them were overcome with bewilderment and repeatedly fainted. The earth seemed covered by heaps of fallen limbs and heads, piled one upon another, making the devastation of war unmistakable and morally sobering.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the human cost of war: even those deemed 'blameless' fall, and the sight of dismemberment shatters the living. It implicitly warns that victory cannot erase suffering, and it invites ethical reflection on violence, duty, and compassion for the bereaved.
In Strī-parvan’s lamentation scenes after the Kurukṣetra war, the accompanying women move among the slain. They see headless trunks and severed heads scattered on the ground, and the shock and grief cause them to lose consciousness and faint.